Pavlovo Interregional Investigating Department of the Investigative Committee for Nizhny Novgorod region has initiated criminal proceedings under Article 286 (3) (a) of Russian Criminal Code (exceeding official powers) against unidentified police officers who allegedly tortured Oleg Krayushkin in office room №46 of Criminal Investigation Directorate under Main Directorate of the Interior for Nizhny Novgorod region.
On 20 September 2012 a businessman from Pavlovo city, Oleg Krayushkin, applied to the INGO «Committee Against Torture» for legal assistance. The man alleges that on 11 September 2012 he was subjected to torture by police officers with the purpose of obtaining false statements, including against himself. The man maintains that he was tortured in one of office rooms of the Interregional Department «Pavlovskiy» by A.V. Kuzmin, Ministry of the Interior serviceman, together with another policeman unfamiliar to the applicant.
According to Mr Krayushkin, following numerous demands to confess to stealing a sawmill, the policemen forced the applicant to take off his boots and to kneel – and started hitting him with a truncheon on his feet. The applicant also states, that Mr Kuzmin occasionally hit him with his palms in the ears, face, and groin area. Moreover, the policemen threatened that if the man didn’t confess to the theft, they would rape him the a truncheon. Two hours later the officers, having failed to obtain a confession statement, took Oleg to a temporary detention facility of Sosnovskoe district police department, where, following his lawyer’s request, a forensic medical expert examined the man and recorded heamatomas on his feet in the relevant medical report.
«Unfortunately, relevant criminal proceedings were initiated only a year after Oleg Krayushkin’s crime complaint», comments Dmitry Laptev, a lawyer working with the Committee Against Torture, «I believe, it at last happened thanks to our work as well. Human rights defenders worked a lot on the public investigation and legal assistance in this case: we arranged a polygraph examination of the applicant’s statements and attained Mr Krayushkin’s official meeting with the Head of Regional Investigative Committee Vladimir Stravinskas. We hope, now that the proceedings have been opened, the investigation into the circumstances in question is going to become more effective. As for us, we will provide further legal assistance to the applicant».